French fashion parade keeps reputation afloat

French fashion parade keeps reputation afloat

By Dini S. Djalal

JAKARTA (JP): For the last nine months, magazines and
newspapers have devoted copious pages to the travails of Le
Malaise Francais.

That's in reference to the French living in France constantly
complaining of their land's economic problems, be it 12 percent
unemployment, perpetual labor strikes or the European Union's
demands for increased trade liberalization. Add to these woes
Jean Marie Le Pen's far-right brigade chanting "Out With the
Immigrants", those very same people who bring a critical vibrancy
to Paris' arts and cultural scene. Its enough to bring many
Parisian into a crisis of identity and confidence, and the drama-
loving French love a good crisis.

Even that bastion of French superiority, la moda, finds its
pampered ego bruised. This spring, the longest queues at Paris'
pret-a-porter shows were not to see French designers, but British
imports John Galliano and Alexander McQueen. In Paris, I heard
firsthand rumblings on the street questioning why Bernard
Arnault, president of fashion conglomerate LVMH (Louis Vuitton-
Moet Hennesy), chose McQueen over local talent Jean-Paul
Gaultier. Parisians welcomed Arnault's throning of the enigmatic
Galliano at Christian Dior, but were less elated at his
positioning of 27-year-old McQueen at Givenchy and of American
Marc Jacobs at Louis Vuitton.

The French fashion crisis deepened last month when Karl
Lagerfeld, monarch at Chanel, announced that his eponymous label
was going bust. Worries escalated this week when Nina Ricci let
go of half its couture staff, and cosmetics giant Clarins took
over Thierry Mugler. Black-clad Parisians are holding on to their
inimitable sangfroid, but few insiders deny that French fashion's
financial plunge and growing attachment to corporate interests is
a far cry from its glory days of Paul Poiret in the 1900s, Coco
Chanel in the 1930s, Christian Dior in the 1950s and Yves Saint
Laurent in the 1970s.

Fashion students note the importance of the past, but
consumers often forget that it was Poiret who took women out of
corsets, Chanel who had women in knee-length skirts rather than
floor-dusters, and Saint Laurent who put women in pants. The fact
is that the French repeatedly revolutionized fashion and,
consequently, the lives of the women who wore them. Sure, the
French may act as if design artistry is part of, as they say, les
acquis sociaux (entitlements), but their arrogance is not without
basis. Years ago, when fashion's influence in dictating hemlines
emanated from select geniuses, the chosen few were all French.

Visible export

That's a fact not lost on Jakarta's French Embassy and Plaza
Indonesia, who are jointly putting on the French Fashion Parade
next week at Plaza Indonesia's La Moda Cafe. The week-long
promotion, highlighted by daily fashion shows by French fashion
houses, was launched on Thursday with a gala dinner called "An
Evening in Paris". France's Ambassador to Indonesia Thierry de
Beauce and Director of Plaza Indonesia Realty Willy Sidharta
opened the festivities.

When asked if fashion was France's most important export,
Ambassador de Beauce answered, "Well, no, but fashion is France's
most visible and prestigious export".

It's a shame the fashion show failed to properly show the
expanse of France's prestige. Kenzo's flower-print shirt-dresses
opened the show, worn by chipper models in floral-bouquet hats
with baguettes and shopping bags slung under their willowy arms.
Oh la la, observers may have murmured as more models bounced down
the catwalk in colorful stripes, as if traipsing through the
greens of Les Tuileries.

Another, in a fire-engine red Claude Montana skirt-suit,
strolled down carrying a poodle. French fashion indeed, and fun
to watch, but straight out of Baedeker guidebooks rather than the
halls of Les Ecoles de Haute Couture.

Even the genius of Christian Lacroix, with all his color-blind
brilliance, was shown monochrome, albeit vividly so, the
sculptural suits on show in bright orchard colors like lemon
yellow and tangerine.

The Christian Dior collection was more impressive, the
plunging necklines of its satin suits transforming the collarbone
into a provocative erogenous zone. And the lace bodice shown in
the finale was pure artistry and craftsmanship, French finery at
its finest.

Yet that was it, a short, unfulfilling teaser of what the
French can do. Perhaps shows later in the week, such as Chevignon
today, Lanvin tomorrow and Girbaud on Tuesday, will be better
proof of France's design spirit.

But with foie gras on the dinner table and Edith Piaf trilling
through the speakers, the event was undeniably glamorous.
Unfortunately, the setting was less so. Situated in the atrium of
Plaza Indonesia, La Moda has an open-air ambience that is both
blessing and blight. The high ceiling imbues the cafe with a
feeling of space often missing in Jakarta, but this space is also
walled by shops and an ever increasing crowd of shoppers. Whether
by accident or design, La Moda feels like an aquarium whose well-
heeled fishes are forever ogled at by envious onlookers.

That sense of distinction is precisely the point, says Willy
Sidharta. "Many people say to me, if you're eating a two-thousand
rupiah mie (noodle), maybe you don't want people to see you. But
if you're eating expensive food, then you want to be seen," he
said. Sidharta added that high-society ladies need a place to
rest their stilletoed feet in between shopping sessions, and that
this place had to be "high-class".